Scott, A. (2012). An alternative to the college degree. Marketplace. Retrieved from http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/alternative-college-degree American Public Media released the piece “An Alternative to the College Degree?” in which Scott (2012) detailed the function of a college degree and the information or…

Conference Board, The. (2006). Are they really ready to work? Employers’ perspectives on the basic knowledge and applied skills of new entrants to the 21st century U.S. workforce. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/FINAL_REPORT_PDF09-29-06.pdf. The report provides a look at employers’ views on…

Casilli, C. (2012). Badge system design: What we talk about when we talk about validity. Persona. Retrieved from http://carlacasilli.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/badge-system-design-what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-validity/. In her article “Badge System Design: What We Talk About When We Talk About Validity,” Casilli (2012) addressed questions and assumptions…

Preface The information contained in this project appendix was gathered from the original project proposal that was funded in 2012 and interviews with project leaders through the end of 2014. This appendix and the overall design principles database from the…

Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt and National Design Museum and technology partner LearningTimes proposed to build the DesignPrep badge system (which at the beginning was called Design Exchange). Their program is a digital badge system that has been integrated into Cooper-Hewitt’s DesignPrep program, which engages underserved high school students in New York City in design activities. The program provides youth the opportunity to develop design, collaboration, and presentation skills through participating in activities focused around fashion, architecture, and 3D design.

Bills, D. B. (2003). Credentials, signals, and screens: Explaining the relationship between schooling and job assignment. Review of Educational Review, 73(4), 441-449. Retrieved from http://rer.sagepub.com/content/73/4/441.abstract#cited-by Bills (2003) presented and examined a set of theories that explain the relationship between credentials…

The Ohio State University, in collaboration with Digital Watershed, proposed the development of the EarthWorks badging system. Their program is a digital badge system intended to engage K-12 students with the relevance of Native American history and culture through interdisciplinary investigation of earth mounds built by Native American cultures. The project intended these investigations to produce opportunities for discovery and inquiry for current and future participants of the program.

Regardless of where you start, it’s more than likely you’ll end up somewhere other than your intended destination. That’s okay. Systems are living things, and your badge system needs to be flexible. You must embrace a bit of chaos in its design.
-Carla Casilli, Director of Design + Practice at the Badge Alliance